Celebrities as co-workers

In my many years in the TV business, I’ve had the opportunity to work with various celebrities as co-hosts in regular television programs, special events and corporate shows. So far, I’ve been lucky because the people I’ve worked with have been more than okay. And now, please allow me to go down memory lane so that I may share with you my colorful experiences with some of them.

The first time I met Cristy Fermin was when I was taken in as film reviewer for Channel 7’s Movie Magazine to temporarily replace Mario Hernando who had to leave for the US on a USIS grant. Cristy was then co-hosting the show with Nap Gutierrez. On my first day there, she was extremely nice and warm to me. Less than a year later, we were doing our own showbiz talk show, Showbiz Lingo on Channel 2.

Although our personalities were extremely different, people kept talking about our supposedly wonderful chemistry (opposite attract?).

To this day, I still can’t understand where that chemistry came from. But I do know that we work well together because by just looking at each other, we were able to establish communication. Unfortunately, this wasn’t necessarily good all the time because every time we would see something funny in the panel (usually the quirk of some guest celebrity), we would automatically look at each other and as soon as our eyes met, we would break into uncontrollable laughter in front of the camera – always to the chagrin of our floor director and our pool of writers.

One time, we had as guest in the panel this aging action star whose stomach was so big, the button on his cotton shirt just popped out.This exposed his bellybutton, which to our horror, probably had never known the gentle touch of a cotton bud in 20 years. Cristy must have seen that first because I could sense she was starting to giggle beside me. Then I saw the exposed grimy bellybutton and looked at her and we just started laughing in front of the camera.

Then, there was this other time when a veteran actress came to promote her comeback movie and when it was her turn to invite viewers to watch her film, she started to stick her forefinger casually into her ear – like she was cleaning it for the whole world to see! But what really made Cristy and I burst into laugher was when the veteran actress, to our surprise, later inspected the tip of her forefinger – probably checking "kung may FREE." I’m telling you, Cristy was rendered entirely useless during that segment because she just laughed her way through. I remember our head writer, Wenn Deramas (who later directed Ang Tanging Ina) wanted to strangle both of us during the commercial break and I thought we would be called to the principal’s office the following day. To our relief, everyone in the show – from Deo Endrinal down – just decided to forget about the incident.

During our years in Showbiz Lingo, there were Sundays when Cristy and I couldn’t make it to the program – like when I would have to go to the US for example and Edu Manzano would be nice enough to take my slot in the show.

In the case of Cristy, the only time she was absent was when she figured in this vehicular accident late in 1994 and had to spend two weeks in the hospital. That gave me the opportunity to work with another co-host, Ruffa Gutierrez.

I warmly welcomed Ruffa with open arms because she is family to me (my sister married into her clan) and I still remember her first day in the show. At close to showtime (4 p.m.), Ruffa was still nowhere insight. Then, just a few minutes before we went on the air, she came into the studio huffing and puffing and without shoes. It turned out that her car had broken down on her way to Channel 2 and she had to take a cab. She had to remove her shoes because she knew she had to make a dash from the taxi to the studio and couldn’t run in stilettos. But Ruffa was a joy to work with and was wonderful in the show. During Showbiz Lingo’s third anniversary, we even gave her a special award for those two weeks she co-hosted the program.

In the mid-’90s, the great architect of beauty, Ricky Reyes, would often ask me to host some of his special events – usually in SM North EDSA. One of these affairs was a beauty contest – Miss Beauty School Plus, I think – and I found myself doing the show with Lani Mercado.

Lani was one of the most professional people I worked with. She knew her spiels and was sweet to everyone. (The exact opposite of the bitch character she plays in Twin Hearts.) Always prim and proper, working with her was like working with a young Booths Anson Roa and I am looking forward to doing another show with her someday.

In Showbiz Lingo, there was a time when Jazz Page (yes, it was in those ancient days of pagers) bought an entire segment (it ran for a couple of weeks) and asked Jolina Magdangal and myself to handle this promo blitz. Jolina was very young that time and was very playful. On one occasion, I cracked a joke about her and she retaliated by poking her finger into my armpit. I wasn’t that young anymore even then and I didn’t think it was proper for me to have taken part in that horseplay on the air. But looking back, it was fun and I was glad to have that opportunity to co-host the show with Jolina.

The next time we worked together, there was no room for bantering anymore because we had to go drama (naks!) in the GMA Narito ang Puso Ko soap opera.

(To be concluded)